Star Trek: The Cage 50th anniversary of first Star Trek pilot

Star Trek: The Cage 50th anniversary of Star Trek's first pilot

Spandex and monster celebates the 50th anniversary of 'The Cage' with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike

This week is the 50 anniversary of the original star trek pilot.  At the time, no one knew history would be made by this plucky science fiction pilot.  Originally proposed as a zap gun western ala 'wagon train to the stars'  producer Gene Roddenberry decided to use science fiction as a vehicle to talk bluntly about the human condition.

The Enterprise in 'The Cage'

The Keepers who dabbled in illusions versus reality

In the episode, the space ship Enterprise commanded by Christopher Pike would encounter the mysterious woman Vina who was the last human survivor of a wrecked space ship.  The mental race of the Keepers were there to use Vina to mate with Pike and start a human colony of slaves to help the Keepers (who despite their fantastic mental abilities of making their dreams almost a seductive reality had forgotten the technology of their forbears hereby dooming their race to extinction).

Vina as a seductive Orion slave girl

Vina with her illusion of beauty and how she really looked at the end of the episode

Pike fights each tempting illusion until the Keepers realize the humans cannot be used for their plans.  Vina is shown stripped of her illusion as a deformed survivor and is allowed to stay with the Keepers with an illusion of Captain Pike.  At the conclusion Captain Pike rejoins the Enterprise off to new adventures in the stars.

The network executives at the time hated the show calling it 'Too cerebal' and demanded that the woman 2nd in command along with the alien Mr. Spock be dropped from the show.  They wanted another pilot but with more action, and the second pilot was commissioned.  This one starred William Shatner as Captain Kirk and the rest of Star Trek as it is known took flight.  The first pilot was also recut into a two part story called 'The menagarie' that introduced Kirk to the former commander of the USS Enterprise.  Roddenberry would deliver on action adventure but he would make intelligent scripts along with casting multiple ethnic actors in the pilots as well as the series... Star Trek became the first show in TV history with a multiracial kiss in a later episode.  Roddenberry also defied the executives by keeping Mr. Spock a part of the show.

There are prototypes in the first pilot that would be used later in the series...the icy 2nd in command Number One (Majel Barrett) would go on to become nurse chapel as well as Gene Roddenberry's wife and would voice the computer for all the series afterward starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The alien Mr. Spock would return but with a more non emotional demeanor (it's somewhat jarring seeing Mr. Spock in this adventure emoting all over the place).  The doctor already was the emotional heart of the show which would really take place when DeForest Kelley became Dr. McCoy).  With the JJ Abrams remake of Star Trek, the character of Captain Pike would be a father figure mentor to Captain Kirk which is a nod to the original pilot of star trek.

Star Trek Alpha Strike

I filmed a star trek fan film, and it was placed definitely in the era of the first pilot.  The space ship commander Corso was also mentioned to be friends of Captain Pike.  The Alpha Strike was a sister ship to the Pike era Enterprise.  It was a fun fan film to make, and was a fun showcase to the talented actors from my other films in a familiar setting.  Worth a look for Star Trek fans.